Utako Tanner - Japanese Sweets & Bread Baker / Instructor

What is Japanese Bread?

Some people never heard of Japanese bread. Whilst you may think of Japan as a nation of rice, you would be quite surprised by the ubiquity of bakeries in the country. Bread has taken a long time to rise there but the results are very appetising.

We can describe Japanese bread mainly with two categolies - one is "Sweet", and the other is "Savoury".

Sweet ones, including Melon Pan (soft bread covered with crispy cookie dough), An Pan (red bean (adzuki) paste inside of rich bread) or Custard Cream Pan (custard cream filled bread), are usually eaten as breakfast or snacks, and savoury ones, such as Curry Pan (deep fried crispy bread filled with curry) and Yakisoba Pan (yakisoba noodles stuffed into Japanese hot dog buns) , and we even include sandwich as well, are lunch favourite.

Cheese bread - a savoury bread filled with chedder cheese

The biggest difference is the bread texture. Of course the main ingredients are the same, such as strong flour, salt, yeast and water, but we add sugar and butter to make the dough much softer and fluffier. The next difference is our unique fillings. Bread came from Portugal in the mid-16th century but we adapted to our own tastes.

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Here are some typical Japanese bread examples:

Shoku Pan

An Pan

Melon Pan

Cream Pan

Shoku Pan is Japanese fluffy white loaf. It is very soft and delicious . Usually baked in a tin.

One of traditional Japanese sweet bread filled with red (adzuki) bean paste. It created in 1874, and best seller for any time.

Melon Pan is a type of Japanese sweet bun that is also popular in some Far East countries. It is made from an enriched bread dough, covered with a thin layer of crispy cookie dough.

Cream pan was created in 1904, inspired by eating Chou a la creme. We also have Matcha flavours which is loved by many people in abroad.

Tuna & Sweetcorn

Kare (curry) Pan

Tinned tuna and sweetcorn with some mayonaise on the top of buttery bread.

One of nations favourite - a deep fried bun coated with Panko, and curry sauce inside.

Sausage rolls

Pork steamed buns

Sausage (Frankfurter) is rolled inside and baked. Nice with ketchap on the top.

It is originally from China but very popular in Japan as street food especially in winter.